Last fall, photographer Beth Wald accompanied veteran reporter
Rob Schultheis on a trip to Afghanistan. They toured the southern
city of Ghazni, Kabul and the mountains to the northeast, the central
highlands around Bamiyan, and the far northern province of Balkh.
The wounds of the recently completed war against the Taliban and
Al Qaeda were still raw, but they found the Afghan people already
firmly fixed on the future. These are some of Wald's remarkable
images from that trip.

A farmer with his donkey
loaded with forage walks toward the setting sun above the
town of Bamiyan. If peace returns to Afghanistan, people hope
that the sustainable way of life they have practiced for centuries
can resume.photo by Beth Wald